The way forward

Recent developments in the country have provoked in me a search for the way forward. Well, for readers of this column, that is not a new preoccupation for me – a search for the way forward. What is perhaps different this time is the intensity of the provocation.

I have long settled the question of where to look for, for the change that will ensure real progress. That is from among the youths; specifically what I call the “elite youth”. This informs my career choice of working directly with undergraduates, who - inspite of all their “issues “ – present a better crop of raw material than those in the markets, the motor parks and the streets.

The developments I refer to include, but not limited to, the Mr. Herman Hembe of the House of Representatives versus Ms. Arunma Oteh of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bribery and hotel bill accusations, last Saturday’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)’s convention and the muffled reports of heavy last minute lobbying (read bribing) of delegates, leading to the eventual “crowning” of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and others as national officials, and the Dr. Sani Teidi Shuaibu of the Pension Administration (Office of the Head of Service of the Federation) scandal. Let me add the report carried by last Tuesday’s Punch newspaper under the title “FG laments N3tn spent on education”.

In it, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, had, at the opening of a two-day Civil Society/Stakeholders Roundtable on Education, organised by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group, revealed that between 1999 and now, the Federal Government has spent N3trillion on education; “with a little impact,” he added. He also said he was aware that the sector had been suffering from inadequate funding.

Anyim, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary (Special Duties) in his office, Mr. Femi Olayisade, added that government was committed to finding solutions to the problem. He seemed miffed that, inspite of this huge funding, a recurrent “principal demand of ASUU” was “increased funding”. Before taking his leave, he charged the roundtable to “discuss the ways and means of improving our educational system (so that) government’s investment in education (will) be seen making the required impact”.

No prize for guessing right that the same hydra-headed monster, corruption, is at the root of each of these developments. Let us take it from the last. Three trillion, in any currency (even in Zimbabwean dollars), is no chicken change, as my students would say. But there is not a single aspect of our education – primary, secondary, tertiary, not even research – that we can say is faring considerably.

From this year’s budget, we have some idea of where the bulk of the N3tn went. Of the N400billion earmarked for education in 2012, almost N340billion goes into paying of salaries, allowances, overhead and other recurrent expenditure. Only N55billion will try to tackle capital projects in the entire federation. Equally, the 2005 N50million bribe-for-budget scandal, under the then Minister Prof Fabian Osuji and then Senate President Adolphus Wabara, shows how another part of the money was spent.

Thus, by the time National Assembly “oversight” and “appropriation” functions (from both chambers) are done, what remained of the N3tn went through personnel and overhead costs at the Ministry and all the agencies under it (UBE, NUC, NBTE, JAMB, NECO, NERDC, etc). Then, whatever remains (if we work with N55b of N400b - taking a cue from the 2012 budget - which roughly approximates to less than 15% of the total) the now less than 15percent of N3tn is all that is left for any development. And, may I add here that the money earmarked for capital projects usually always never gets fully released; and a bulk of what is released somehow ends up back in the pockets of the director generals, permanent secretaries and other “big ogas and madams” in the ministries/agencies. Try also to include what goes into the pockets of the vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts as well as other principal officials. You see, it’s a vicious cyclic racket that we run here.

This directly leads us to the exertions of Shuaibu and others at the headquarters of the nation’s civil service. Reading through the properties of the man that was reportedly seized by the EFCC, one can understand how our top civil servants are among the richest in the land, amassing properties and sending their children to the most expensive schools in and outside the country. I am too disgusted to add anything else to the matter.

We have so accepted corruption as the norm that, often times, some of those we describe as “respectable” do and allow practices that make the discerning wonder. I was a little child when Bamanga Tukur was governor of then Gongola State (albeit for just three months), and a teenager when he served the Sani Abacha junta, so cannot say much about his conduct in office. But from what I have read about him since I first “met” him in my days at Fate Foundation (an entrepreneurial training school) as the head of the African Business Roundtable, I had formed a picture of absolute respectability about him. Now, I do not care much for the PDP. This is formed from my proven premise that the party is completely clueless on how to deliver the nation from the cesspit of underdevelopment. Thus, immediately I learnt that Tukur was angling for the party’s chairmanship (if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t allow Jonathan or anyone else prod him on), I did a re-think. When, therefore, news of the “lobbying” to ensure the President wasn’t humiliated by the Northeast upstarts started coming out, I groaned to myself the beautiful ones are not yet born.

Hembe is a young man; Ms. Oteh is a technocrat. If Tukur is 76, Hembe is under 45; if Shuaibu is a man, Oteh is a woman. Each of these is at least educated, exposed, well-travelled or even has the three experiences. So, our problem is not “recycled men”, it is not “greedy men”, and it is not “desperate women”. The solution is therefore not in “technocrats”, and it is not in “new-breed”.

While reading the report quoting Anyim, I remember that I first heard of the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG), the body that organised the roundtable, sometime last year when Vice-President Namadi Sambo spoke at another event it held. This prompted a research into who and what are behind the group. My findings are interesting. I will continue from there next week.

Ciao

Happy birthday, Asiwaju

I join other well-wishers to pray for former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as he clocks 60 today. I have met the man only once, but he has impacted my life in many positive ways since then, even in a directly personal way.

What can I wish you today, sir, but to ask God to keep you strong until you fulfill all your dreams, personal and national. Happy birthday, Asiwaju.